In this 1956 photo, the young student Gherman Titov is portrayed with his father Stepan Pavlovich Titov.
A year earlier, the twenty-year-old Titov enrolled in the Stalingrad Air Force Pilots Training School in Novosibirsk. During that time, he was not thinking about a career as a cosmonaut yet but had already earned his reputation as a professional pilot. He had completed over eight hundred flights on various air vehicles, including jets and piston-engined aircraft. He also performed many parachute jumps. In the flying school and academy, Titov mastered piloting such planes as the Yak-11, Yak-18, UTI MiG-15, and MiG-15bis.
Having graduated from the academy with flying colors, he received an honors diploma, the qualification of a military pilot, and the rank of lieutenant. Gherman Titov was sent to serve in the Guards Fighter Regiment of Air Army 76, Leningrad Military District, where he piloted the MiG-15 planes. Soon, Titov was awarded the rank of senior lieutenant.
On January 5, 1959, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the USSR Council of Ministers published the decree “On the selection of cosmonaut candidates”, and in May 1959 — the decree “On the preparation for a manned space mission”. In accordance with these decrees, Air Force units started looking for their candidates.
In total, the information on 3,461 candidates was analyzed. By February 1960, twenty cosmonaut candidates were selected after numerous medical tests to prepare for a space flight. One of them was the senior lieutenant Gherman Titov.
The process involved various medical procedures, tests, and training exercises, and included a complex of all-around physical activities. The potential cosmonauts also studied the Vostok 3A spacecraft, attended theory courses, and obtained knowledge crucial for successfully completing future missions.
On January 17, 1961, the team successfully passed the test for being admitted to a Vostok space mission.
A year earlier, the twenty-year-old Titov enrolled in the Stalingrad Air Force Pilots Training School in Novosibirsk. During that time, he was not thinking about a career as a cosmonaut yet but had already earned his reputation as a professional pilot. He had completed over eight hundred flights on various air vehicles, including jets and piston-engined aircraft. He also performed many parachute jumps. In the flying school and academy, Titov mastered piloting such planes as the Yak-11, Yak-18, UTI MiG-15, and MiG-15bis.
Having graduated from the academy with flying colors, he received an honors diploma, the qualification of a military pilot, and the rank of lieutenant. Gherman Titov was sent to serve in the Guards Fighter Regiment of Air Army 76, Leningrad Military District, where he piloted the MiG-15 planes. Soon, Titov was awarded the rank of senior lieutenant.
On January 5, 1959, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the USSR Council of Ministers published the decree “On the selection of cosmonaut candidates”, and in May 1959 — the decree “On the preparation for a manned space mission”. In accordance with these decrees, Air Force units started looking for their candidates.
In total, the information on 3,461 candidates was analyzed. By February 1960, twenty cosmonaut candidates were selected after numerous medical tests to prepare for a space flight. One of them was the senior lieutenant Gherman Titov.
The process involved various medical procedures, tests, and training exercises, and included a complex of all-around physical activities. The potential cosmonauts also studied the Vostok 3A spacecraft, attended theory courses, and obtained knowledge crucial for successfully completing future missions.
On January 17, 1961, the team successfully passed the test for being admitted to a Vostok space mission.
